Qatar’s Al Sadd lost 2-6 to Esperance Sportive de Tunis in the fifth-place match of the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup at the Khalifa International Stadium on Tuesday.

A hat-trick by Hamdou Elhouni and double by Anice Badri saw the African champions equal their tournament-best placing of fifth, which they achieved last year. It also earned them revenge for their first-ever Club World Cup loss, having fallen to the Qatari club in 2011.

It took less than two minutes for Al Sadd’s Abdelkarim Hassan to clear an effort off the line, but Esperance were still ahead by six minutes. Great feet from Elhouni crafted enough space to pick out the far corner.

Things escalated further after 13 minutes, with Tarek Salman’s calamitous back-pass leading to Badri tapping into an open net.

Midway through the first half, Abdelkarim Hassan could not repeat his early heroics and he blocked Badri’s goal-bound effort with his hand to see red. And the Tunisian international tucked away the penalty.

Despite being reduced to 10 men, Al Sadd were not out of it, as they sunk two penalties of their own – Baghdad Bounedjah getting this third goal of the tournament, with Hassan Al Haydous adding another early in the second half.

However, Elhouni’s near-post strike just before the break had left a comeback unlikely, before he completed a memorable night, tapping in at the far post to complete his treble.

Sameh Derbali then smashed in the icing on the cake.

Earlier, Al Sadd went down fighting 2-3 to CONCACAF champions CF Monterrey of Mexico in the quarterfinal.

The reigning Qatar league champions had qualified for the quarterfinal by beating Oceania champions Hienghene Sport 3-1 in the tournament’s opener on 11th December.